Deuteronomy 7 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Deuteronomy 7 Summary - A Quick Overview

WHEN:

• Moses’ speech, recorded in the opening chapters of Deuteronomy, occurred immediately following the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  

• The Israelites were in the wilderness from approximately 1490-1450 B.C.

• The Book of Deuteronomy opens on the 1st day of the 11th month in the 40th year (Deu 1:3) following the Israelites departure from Egypt (approximately 1450 B.C.).

CHARACTERS:

• Israelites (Hebrews) – The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God granted them freedom after several hundred years in slavery in Egypt. Leading up to the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness as they made their way to Canaan, the land God promised to give them as a home.

• Moses – Moses was selected by God to lead the Israelites to Canaan. God spoke directly to Moses and Moses communicated God’s words and laws to the people.    

WHERE:

• Deuteronomy 1:5 tells us Moses spoke the words recorded in Deuteronomy while in Moab, probably on the plains of Moab near Pisgah (Numbers 22:1).

OUTLINE:

• ISRAEL, A UNIQUE NATION CHOSEN BY GOD (7:1-26):

  • Chapter 7 is a continuation of Moses’ speech to the Israelites.

  • Moses commanded the people to cast out all the nations that inhabited Canaan when they entered the land.

  • Moses mentioned several of those nations: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

  • They were not to allow people of these nations to intermingle with them, be their neighbors, or intermarry with them.

  • They were to tear down all their idols and destroy their pagan holy sites.

  • They were not allowed to take the gold or silver from the idols they destroyed because they were considered an abomination and something to be abhorred (7:25-26).

  • Israel was to be separate from these nations in every way because they were a “holy people to the Lord.”

  • God had selected them for this privileged position, not because they were particularly special compared to other nations, but because of God’s promises to Abraham.

  • Moses reiterated that the Israelites would be blessed with protections, health, fertility, and wealth if they kept God’s commands, but they would be the recipients of God’s punishment if they neglected them.

  • If the Israelites found themselves in doubt of their ability to conquer Canaan, they were to call to mind God’s 10 plagues and the humiliation of Egypt.

  • God promised to empower them until all the kings of Canaan were defeated.

APPLICATION:

• Israel was not selected to be God’s special nation because they were bigger, more powerful, smarter, or more industrious than their contemporary nations.

• In fact, they were smaller and less powerful than Egypt and all the Canaanites.

• Israel’s victories were a display of God’s power, not man’s power.

• The same is true with God’s people today, Christians.

• God does not need the richest, smartest, most well connected, or most innovative people for the Church to succeed in it’s mission on earth.

• Jesus’ Church will succeed in it’s intended purpose because God’s power is working through it, and God is more than capable of using weak men/women to accomplish whatever He intends.